Chapter 11 : Confrontation (1)

“Is this Blake’s hiding place?” Rachel asked.

“This is it.” Yuhui arrived at the main gate and found it slightly ajar, unlocked.

Rachel took a few deep breaths and said, “Charge in?”

Yuhui didn’t speak.
He took out his monocle and placed it over his right eye, peering through the gap in the iron gate towards the villa.

“There are no magic formations in the outer garden, at least none that I can see,” Yuhui said, releasing the safety on his pistol.
“Let’s go in.”

Yuhui pushed the iron gate open directly, and the two of them walked into the courtyard, heading straight for the villa’s entrance.
Just as they were about to enter the villa, Rachel suddenly sensed something and couldn’t help but stop.

“Wait a minute,” Rachel said, placing a hand on Yuhui’s shoulder.
“Although you didn’t ‘see’ anything, I think I heard something.”

“A sound? What sound?” Yuhui pressed down the hammer with his thumb, reducing the pistol’s trigger travel and pull weight, so that his next shot would be more accurate.

“Breathing, and footsteps,” Rachel said, placing a slender white forefinger on her delicate lips, signaling him to be quiet.

She bent down, pressed her ear to the ground, and closed her eyes, listening intently to the surrounding sounds.
She carefully distinguished all the sounds that reached her ears, trying her best to filter out the sound of the wind and rain.

Breathing sounds, there were many breathing sounds, and also faint noises of objects pressing on the grass and the floor.
Most importantly, there were strange cries, like a hoarse vibration coming from the throat, a sound that wasn’t quite human.
These sounds came from all directions, and there were a great many of them.
Rachel made a basic judgment: they were probably surrounded by some people or creatures.

“Yuhui, I forgot to ask you, is Blake Morton alone?” Rachel’s voice was slightly tense.

“Yes, he is alone. What’s wrong?” Yuhui was constantly on alert.
“At least, when I met him, he was alone.”

“Then he must have found quite a few helpers,” Rachel said, standing up and dusting herself off.
“Behind the house, on the first floor inside, it’s full of breathing and footsteps. At least 20 people in total. Outside the iron fence, there are footsteps too!”

“And their sounds are a bit strange,” Rachel said with a thoughtful expression.
“It feels… how should I put it, not like they’re human.”

“I understand. Blake has indeed found helpers,” Yuhui said.
“And they are indeed not human.”

“What?”

“Look over there. They’ve come to welcome us,” Yuhui said, pointing his gun to the side.

From somewhere, strange creatures had appeared, running on all fours, moving like apes.

These monsters had no eyes, and their hands and feet had only three thick, long fingers with claws as sharp as bone blades.
The monsters were a pale green all over, with fifty to sixty percent of their bodies covered in hard carapaces.
They were coated in a thick layer of mucus that covered their carapaces, skin, and muscles.
They had heads larger than an average person’s, and sharp teeth protruded from their slit-like mouths.

The monsters were scattered throughout the garden: in the trees, on the villa’s roof, on the lawn, in the flowerbeds, at the house’s entrance, and on the second-floor balcony.
Their figures were everywhere.

They opened their mouths, which split open like cracked boiled eggs, to a point where they couldn’t open any further, and let out a series of harsh screeches at the two of them.

Accompanied by this jarring shriek, the monsters drew closer and closer to Rachel and Yuhui.

“What the hell are these things?” Rachel had been in this world for a year, but this was the first time she had seen such a peculiar creature.
“Has snot come to life?”

“I’ve never seen them either. He may have used some strange magic to build his own special ‘army’,” Yuhui said.
“It’s very likely that these things have been lurking in Sinhe City for a long time.”

His voice was very calm, like an emotionless machine.
It was as if the monsters that appeared before them posed no threat at all.

“Um, no offense, but are you sure your gun and bullets can kill these monsters that look like they have very tenacious vitality?” Rachel asked, glancing at Yuhui out of the corner of her eye.

“We can try.”

Just then, a monster rushed to the front and pounced at Yuhui.
Yuhui raised his gun and fired.
A 9mm bullet blasted through its head.
The bullet’s kinetic energy stopped the monster in its tracks.
The monster’s corpse, with a large hole in its head, fell directly to the ground.
White brain matter mixed with dark green blood splattered everywhere.

“Looks like there’s no problem.”

“Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

“Clear them out, or they’ll keep obstructing us,” Yuhui said to Rachel.

“Alright, alright, roger that,” Rachel said, clenching her fists and placing her strong side back, assuming a kickboxing stance.

The monsters charged simultaneously, rushing towards the two of them like flies to rotting meat.
It seemed that to them, the flesh and blood of the two were the most delicious delicacies at this party.

“The way they’re looking at us is a bit strange, like they’re looking at grilled squid and charcoal-grilled pork belly,” Rachel said, throwing a monster to the ground with a shoulder throw.
She then pressed down on it and rained down ground-and-pound punches, cracking its skull like mashing garlic.

At that moment, three more monsters approached Rachel.
They all stood up, becoming bipedal.
Rachel quickly got up, first using footwork to retreat and a back sway to dodge their swinging claws, then sent one monster flying with a side kick.
A depression appeared on the chest of the kicked monster.
It flew through the air like a shot put.
Then she used a jab to control the second monster’s attack, dodged the third monster’s bite, and sent it away with a front kick.
The monster hit by the front kick followed in its brother’s footsteps.

Rachel came to the only monster she hadn’t kicked away.
She landed a heavy lead jab, followed by a rear straight, then a lead hook, shattering its jaw.
She then followed with a low kick, breaking its left leg, and an elbow strike that shattered its nasal bone.
After it fell to the ground, she stomped on its head, crushing it.

Yuhui held his dual Berettas, firing left and right, continuously pulling the triggers.
With the crisp sound of the pistols firing, gleaming yellow bullets flew accurately into the monsters’ heads, never missing.

Yuhui quickly emptied the thirty rounds in his pistols.
He pressed the magazine release, dropping the empty magazines.
While no monsters were close, he tossed the pistols into the air.
With his free hands, he quickly reached into his coat and pulled out new, fully loaded magazines.
He caught the pistols as they fell, simultaneously inserting the magazines.

Rachel noticed that the rain was getting heavier, a downpour.
The rain soaked the two of them and all the monsters.
With the sound of the pouring rain, a flash of light lit up the sky.

Then came a roar of thunder.

“I told you, today is a good day to rack up points,” Rachel said, a grin spreading across her rain-streaked face, a hint of viciousness in her smile.

Rachel extended her right hand and snapped her fingers in the heavy rain.

“Freeze! Don’t move!”

Snap!

At the same time, all the monsters within a 5-meter radius of Rachel froze in place.
The rainwater on their bodies turned to frost, and along with the ice-covered ground, they were firmly held in place.

Psionic ability—Xeno-ice.

“All of you, die!” Rachel commanded.

As the rain washed over them, the frost on their bodies grew thicker and thicker, and they completely turned into ice sculptures.

Not only the monsters that were initially within Rachel’s range, but also all the monsters that tried to rush into her range after she used her ability were frozen into ice sculptures within three seconds.

“Maybe we can open a small ice and snow world. My hometown likes to make ice sculptures and buildings in the winter. They’re very beautiful,” Rachel quipped.

“Is this… a psionic ability?” Yuhui murmured, staring at the “ice sculptures” while still firing his gun.